Attila Pápai, Developer in Auckland, New Zealand
Attila is available for hire
Hire Attila

Attila Pápai

Verified Expert  in Engineering

Linux Administration Developer

Auckland, New Zealand

Toptal member since November 12, 2021

Expertise
System AdministrationLinuxDNSUnixAnsibleAutomationGrafanaApache
Bio

Attila is a Red Hat-certified engineer with 16+ years of experience in the IT industry. He focuses on Linux administration, server automation with Git, Terraform, and Ansible, and command-line and shell programming with Bash and Python. He is experienced with Amazon cloud products such as EC2, RDS, IAM, and ECS and server-side technologies such as Apache and NGINX. Attila enjoys solving problems, improving customer satisfaction, and working effectively within a team with minimal supervision.

Portfolio

Telecommunications Company
Red Hat Linux, Ansible, Bash, Automation, ITIL V3 Foundation Certified...
Vodafone Group
Linux, Ansible, PHP, VMware, RHEL, Linux Administration, CentOS, Red Hat Linux

Experience

  • Bash - 16 years
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux - 16 years
  • Linux - 16 years
  • System Administration - 12 years
  • Linux Administration - 12 years
  • Ansible - 6 years
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) - 3 years
  • DevOps - 2 years

Availability

Part-time

Preferred Environment

Linux RHEL/CentOS, Ubuntu Linux, SUSE, Ansible, Terraform, Bash, Python 3, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, DevOps, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The most amazing...

...thing I've done is building and deploying automation services that reduced the build time by 90%.

Work Experience

DevOps and Systems Engineer

2016 - 2023
Telecommunications Company
  • Handled OpenShift administration and Kubernetes infrastructure support.
  • Automated the configuration management procedures and created the logging and monitoring solutions with Ansible.
  • Automated a build with Terraform and Ansible to AWS and vCloud (VMware).
  • Supported internal and external customers on multiple platforms and various Linux versions, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), OEL, SLES, and Ubuntu.
  • Handled security hardening, keeping images and servers updated and patched.
  • Used Nagios, Checkmk, Grafana, Zabbix, and Xymon for monitoring solutions.
  • Utilized Bash, PHP, Python, and MySQL/MariaDB in scripting and automation.
  • Rebuilt RHEL 7 both in the cloud and on-premises to RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 using Terraform and, when possible, the LEAPP tool.
Technologies: Red Hat Linux, Ansible, Bash, Automation, ITIL V3 Foundation Certified, Monitoring, Kubernetes, Linux Administration, CentOS, Grafana, Red Hat Satellite, Terraform, Python 3, CI/CD Pipelines, Jenkins, OpenShift, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Hosted Services and Linux Systems Engineer

2012 - 2016
Vodafone Group
  • Rebuilt Vodafone's webmail platform using Ansible and created 50+ playbooks.
  • Tracked and fixed the infrastructure and application-related issues.
  • Kept all the servers updated and regularly applied the security patches.
  • Supported the Apache and NGINX web server infrastructure.
Technologies: Linux, Ansible, PHP, VMware, RHEL, Linux Administration, CentOS, Red Hat Linux

Experience

Rebuilding of the Webmail Platform through Automation with Playbooks

Vodafone New Zealand's webmail platform was built on an unsupported operating system. My task was to rebuild it on a new CentOS 7 platform with a MySQL database. I created the Ansible files to roll out the new servers, configured them, and created a load balancer in front of them. The results were cloud servers that became easily scalable.

NGINX Website Deployment

As the back-end developer of a local NGINX website that was hosted on Amazon, I was involved in deploying the website with MySQL back end, Terraform, and CI/CD pipeline running in GitLab by GitLab Runners.

Creating Infrastructure for a New Application With DevOps Tools

Championed the development of a Kubernetes solution for a new customer at Spark, utilizing cutting-edge DevOps tools. With a small team, led the creation of the infrastructure on vCloud using Terraform and Helm charts and configured it with Ansible. Employed GitOps with Argo CD for seamless deployment of new versions of YAML files, resulting in streamlined and efficient operations for the customer.

Upgrading Legacy Server’s to Newer Versions of Red Hat With Automation

I have upgraded end-of-life Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7 servers to RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 with minimal downtime and disruption. Collaborating with application developer team members, I developed a plan and executed the migration successfully, ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. The build has been done with Terraform, and the configuration has been done via Ansible.

Planning And Implementing Quarterly Maintenance Patching

At every job or contract, I ensured the infrastructure was maintained and security vulnerabilities patched. I mostly used Red Hat Satellite, but in case it was unavailable, I used everyday project management tools to plan, implement, and test the changes related to patching.

Education

2010 - 2012

Associate Degree in Computer Programming

Forrai School - Budapest, Hungary

Certifications

NOVEMBER 2023 - SEPTEMBER 2025

Red Hat Certified Architect in Infrastructure

Red Hat

NOVEMBER 2023 - NOVEMBER 2026

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Services Management and Automation

Red Hat

NOVEMBER 2023 - NOVEMBER 2026

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Linux Diagnostics and Troubleshooting

Red Hat

APRIL 2023 - APRIL 2026

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers

Red Hat

OCTOBER 2022 - OCTOBER 2025

Red Hat Certified Specialist in OpenShift Administration

Red Hat

SEPTEMBER 2022 - SEPTEMBER 2025

Red Hat Certified Specialist in Containers and Kubernetes

Red Hat

AUGUST 2022 - AUGUST 2025

AWS Certified Solutions Architect

Amazon Web Services

OCTOBER 2019 - OCTOBER 2025

Red Hat Certified Engineer

Red Hat

SEPTEMBER 2013 - SEPTEMBER 2016

Red Hat Certified System Administrator

Red Hat

Skills

Tools

Ansible, Terraform, GitLab CI/CD, Red Hat Satellite, Nagios, NGINX, VMware, Amazon EKS, GitLab, AWS CloudFormation, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Grafana, Checkmk, Check_MK, Jenkins, Varnish

Platforms

Linux RHEL/CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Linux, CentOS, Red Hat Linux, Linux CentOS 7, Ubuntu Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Ubuntu, CentOS 6, Unix, Docker, Amazon EC2, Kubernetes, OpenShift, Red Hat OpenShift, Apache2, Azure

Languages

Bash, Python 3, PHP, HTML

Paradigms

Automation, DevOps

Storage

SUSE, MySQL Server, MySQL, Amazon S3 (AWS S3)

Other

RHEL, System Administration, Linux Administration, SSH, Monitoring, Containers, Ubuntu Server, Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), Red Hat Certified System Administrator (RHCSA), BIND DNS, TCP/IP, DNS, IP Routing, Unix Shell Scripting, Shell Scripting, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Configuration Management, ITIL V3 Foundation Certified, Domain Name System (DNS), Podman, CI/CD Pipelines, IT Services, iSCSI, HAProxy, Argo CD, GitOps, Server Infrastructure, YUM, IT Project Management, Troubleshooting

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring